Fall Front Placket Tutorial

A while ago someone sent me a message asking how I do the plackets on fall fronts. I spent such a very long time answering it as thoroughly as I could that I figured I ought to post it here too, in case anyone else needs a tutorial for fairly quick & easy machine sewn fall plackets. (This won't be much help if you're doing curved plackets, but as far as I can tell those appear to be much less common than straight ones.)

It's basically the same as a modern shirt sleeve placket, but with the addition of a flap thingy.

Obviously it's not historically accurate because it's done by machine, but breeches have so many little seams and are so covered up when worn that I usually do a large portion of the sewing on them by machine.

Fall front plackets are something I’ve done quite a few of and I still have to stop and think about what I’m doing because it’s very easy to get things backwards. As with so many things, if you've never done one before it’s best to do a sample with scrap fabric first.

Your pattern piece for the placket should look something like this:

I find it's best to mark the locations of these lines with notches on the pattern piece, and once the piece is traced onto the fabric, to mark the lines with a ruler. I cut them with about 1 cm of seam allowance, or a bit less.

I like to make my plackets 2 cm wide, and around 19 cm long, but yours may vary depending on your size and preference.

First I’d better mention the lining, if there is one. I usually fully line my breeches, but they can be made unlined too.

You want the top edge of the fall to be finished before you even start the placket. I find it’s best to sew the crotch seam first, on the front pieces only. I know that modern pants instructions will tell you to sew each leg individually and then sew them together, but fall fronts require a different approach.

Here is a crappy diagram to show what I mean:

So, front lining sewn to front outer fabric first on the top of the fall only. 
There is also the option of just lining the fall with a little upside-down-house shaped bit of fabric. And I suppose if you really don’t want any lining you could probably get away with just hemming the top, as long as your fabric is sturdy enough.

Next time I make a pair of fall front breeches I'll post about the rest of the construction in great detail.

Once you have a nicely finished top edge you can start on the placket. If you do have a lining then after sewing it on there you should make sure it’s nicely lined up and then baste it in place around the placket areas. You don’t want it shifting.

Your pieces will look something like this: (except twice as many, and the crotch seam will be sewn) 

I’ve labelled the inside and outside of the pants, and the side seam and centre front, to help make things clearer. (I am sorry for the quality of the photos, my camera is very bad)

First, take your front gap filling flap pieces (I've recently been informed that it's called the "under-fall", but I'll still call them flaps for this tutorial), sew them together on the curved edge only, trim, turn & press. After this I like to put the pattern piece back over them and trace on the lines again so I can see where to sew it.

I have pressed down the seam allowance on the top of the fall in this sample, so we can pretend it’s a finished lined edge.

The line for your placket should be clearly marked on the inside. If it’s lined this means you’ll have to transfer the marking for the dot at the bottom onto the right side of the lining and draw it on with a ruler. (do this after cutting it out, before sewing)

Line up the appropriate line on the flap with this line. The bottom of the flap should be about 1cm above the bottom of the line, so as to avoid bulky terribleness there. The flap must be on the inside and pointing towards the side seam! Pin it on & sew it about ½ cm away from the line - away in a towards the side seam direction. Like so:

Next you carefully trim the seam allowance off the flap, on the edge you just sewed. Don’t cut down the line yet, just trim the edge of the flap! The seam allowance should be about ½ cm, or maybe a tiny bit less. Not trimmed close enough that it’s in danger of fraying & coming out, but still narrow enough to not get in the way of sewing this slit.
Here you can see that the seam allowance is trimmed and the placket piece is waiting to be added:

I drew a couple of lines on the placket, about 8mm apart, to show where to sew.

The placket piece has a longer bit that sticks down, a middle section almost as wide, and then another section that’s somewhat narrower. The longer bit that sticks down must be pointing towards the Centre Front.
Line it up exactly with the line, pin it, and sew it on in a very long U shape. When you’re near the bottom of the slit it’s a good idea to make your stitch length smaller, and to go slowly using the machines' hand wheel. Trim down the middle, and clip with a little inverted Y at the bottom, like so:

(Hm, I should have put a bit more seam allowance on the bottom of that placket, but it’s ok.)

Now if all has gone well you’ll have the seam allowance from the flap only in one half of your slit seam allowance.

Next, turn it to the outside and press it, like so:

See that narrow little bit on the right? You must turn it under and stitch it down, like so: (You can also trim off the protruding bit on the top, as I’ve done here)

This bit should be as narrow as you can reasonably get it. I like mine to be 1cm or less. The important thing is that it’s covered up by the other part of the placket. (Which is one reason it’s good to do a sample first, you can check if your dimensions are good!)
If the fabric is bulky and the stack of seam allowances from the flap are making the foot misbehave then I use a zipper foot for this step.

Next, you press this bit towards the side:

Press the little slit seam allowance towards the side too, and then press these 3 sides in, as shown. (You should also press down the allowance on the top of the placket at this step, but I apparently didn’t make this sample placket quite long enough, oops.)

Next, press the longer bit of the placket back towards the front, as shown. You want it to be covering the narrow little bit on the other side, and also the seam from the slit. The little downward pointy bit may look uneven at this point, but you can simply shift those folds a little and press it again.

You want to make sure that the seam allowance at the bottom of the slit is totally enclosed by the downward pointy, so I like to draw a little line showing just where the best place to sew it. (I used marker on the sample, but chalk is usually better when making the actual garment.)

Now pin the placket down flat, taking care to not pin through the flap, and begin to sew it on on the line marked in the above photo:

(I intend to sew this bit down by hand next time I make breeches, as it is the only part of the placket that shows when worn, and I'll update this post with some pictures when I do.)

Once you’ve sewn this line, go around the downward pointy bit and then back over that line again. (it’s good to have the extra stitching there, it need the reinforcement.) I try to stay about 1-2 mm away from the edge, like a very close topstitch:

Now, after the downward pointy is sewn, it’s very important that you move the flap out of the way so as not to sew the whole thing closed. Sew down the long bit of the placket, again staying 1-2 mm away from the edge.

Then sew along the top bit, (which would have had more seam allowance to fold under if I’d remembered to make the sample placket long enough):

Voila! A placket!

Now you need to do the reverse on the other side, and after that it’s ready to put the waistband on.

Here's what the plackets look like on the finished breeches. 

(I feel a bit embarrassed to be using photos of these horrible old ill fitting synthetic breeches as an example, but my more recent pairs have broadfalls. And only one of them fits well anyways. And only because I altered it. I need to make more breeches. I have one good pair and several bad pairs, and that just won't do.)

I hope this is helpful! As I mentioned at the top of the post, I'll write up the rest of my fall front breeches construction method next time I make a pair.